DSI Student Amer Jandali Hits the Road With Random Acts of Kindness

Two friends from Las Cruces, who are now living in different parts of the country, have spent the last two weeks on a journey spreading kindness to random people.

For longtime friends Amer Jandali and Diana O’Brien, a simple idea has turned into something remarkable.

The simple goal was to make others happy and it all started one day in O’Brien’s classroom.

“I had a student who I had just felt like I wanted to do everything to fix everything for them [since they were] going through a difficult time,” O’Brien said. “Then I started to list all the things…all the barriers…Then I told myself why can’t I do it.”

So the journey across state after state to spread random acts of kindness began. Their first stop was volunteering at a Houston animal shelter.

The pair would go on to do everything from handing out blankets and food at homeless shelters, to leaving kind notes and money for strangers. Care packages at bus stops and surprises at laundromats. To helping a man down on his luck get his truck fixed so he could get home.

“Two days later he called us and says ‘guys, I wanted to thank you…I just wanted you to know I made it home.’ It was just great,” Jandali said.

The journey wouldn’t be complete without a trip home they put up a lemonade stand to raise money for Camp Hope in Las Cruces.

They helped a new friend who had just been paralyzed in a motor cross accident.

“[The trip] has allowed us to meet the most incredible people,” O’Brien said.

It turned into quite the journey and now that it’s over.

“It’s about how in every moment of every day we can make a difference…we don’t have to wait to search for it, it’s in everything we put out there,” O’Brien said.

“We all have it in us, it isn’t even about us, this trip, it’s about the human spirit in all of us,” Jandali said.

While the journey is over, you can see everything O’Brien and Jandali did on their Facebook page or website»